Atomic Kitten star Natasha Hamilton definitely doesn’t like to put her feet up.
Having just turned 40, she has joined ITV’s The Real Housewives of Cheshire, and is recording her first solo album.
Oh, and she is also expecting baby number five, in September. Thankfully, she is embracing her packed diary.
“I’m just a juggler,” she said, smiling. “I’ve been juggling life since I was 20 when I first became a mum so I think it’s just second nature to me.
“I love being busy, I love being a career woman and in my creative zone – and my personal life is just so wonderful and settled and calm. I feel in a good place.”
The star, who was 16 when she joined the girl band that made her famous, calls her baby-to-be with husband Charles Gay “a little miracle”.
“This is something we’ve both wanted for such a long time and we just feel blessed,” she says. “It has brought more of a paternal side out in Charles towards me.
“He’s really looking after me, he’s taken over the cooking because it was making me feel bad. It feels very much like the two of us in it together, which is lovely.”
Liverpudlian Natasha met fashion brand director Charles through friends in a pub in 2016 and is thrilled they are starting a family, having married in Lake Como in 2021, following a five-year engagement.
They already have a packed house, thanks to her four children: Josh, 20, with nightclub owner Fran Cosgrave; Harry, 17, with dancer Gavin Hatcher; Alfie, 12, with first husband Riad Erraji, who she divorced in 2013; and Ella, eight, with 5ive singer Ritchie Neville.
Natasha dated Ritchie from 2014 to February 2016, nine months before she announced that she and Charles were engaged. She previously revealed she needed psychiatric care after the birth of Ella.
Now Natasha says she is in a good place, including overcoming her “mum guilt” about being a career woman, which she used to suffer from “a lot”.
She says: “It doesn’t serve any parent because fundamentally we’re all just doing the best we can for our kids. It’s mainly my daughter.
She’s like, ‘I don’t want you to leave. I’m going to miss you.’ But I say, ‘Well Mummy goes to work to get some pennies so we can have nice things in life.’ So she understands.”
Her body confidence has increased in her fifth pregnancy, with health a priority.
“I’m the type of person who looks after themselves, I’ll eat good food, keep hydrated,” she says. “But I’ve hardly done any exercise because every time I do, I just feel like I want to sleep for a week.
“After I’ve had the baby, I’d like to breastfeed so hopefully that will help me get into shape.
What’s important isn’t so much my size but just being physically able to do my work.”
Thankfully, her pregnancy has become smoother sailing after experiencing morning sickness, and a recent craving for noodles and pickles.
“It was quite difficult because I was in the early stages of pregnancy and I was filming my first scenes with the girls,” explains Natasha, talking about her new job on ITVBe’s show The Real Housewives of Cheshire.
“One, I wasn’t drinking and two, I felt really nauseous,” she says. “So it was quite hard to kind of come with the energy some days. But everyone knows now and I’m past the initial phase and feel really good.”
The sixteenth series will feature Lystra Adams, Seema Malhotra, Lauren Simon, Hanna Kinsella, Rachel Lugo, Sheena Lynch and Nicole Sealey alongside Katie Alex, newcomer Paige Chohan and veteran Tanya Bardsley.
For those who have never tuned in, just imagine putting a bunch of Wags, former models, businesswomen and Cheshire celebs together.
As you’d expect there is no shortage of fake tan, backstabbing, rows or drama.
Although when it comes to dealing with catty co-stars, this Atomic Kitten is more than capable.
“Being in a girl band puts me in good stead because I know what it’s like to navigate strong-willed women,” says Natasha. “I can definitely defend myself and stand on my own two feet.
“Being a strong woman doesn’t mean you have to be aggressive but it’s just being assertive.
"If I have an opinion, I’ll share it and if someone else doesn’t like that, then that’s not really my problem!”
Natasha has known Sheena, a backing singer who is married to ex-Boyzone star Shane Lynch, from their roadshow days and has got to know Seema, founder of fashion brand Forever Unique, more recently.
The other ladies had become fast friends. With perhaps one exception. “I’ve had a little bit of a run-in with Nicole,” she said of the trucking entrepreneur.
“With Nicole I just got an energy that I thought, ‘Is she socially awkward?’ It came to a head at a dinner party and we had some words to say to each other.”
But the singer had few doubts about joining up, especially as she is about to release her first solo album.
“It just felt like the right thing to be doing,” she says. “People being able to see who Natasha Hamilton is away from Atomic Kitten. I’m quite an honest, open person and I do show a lot of my life on my social media.
“It was something I discussed with my family because you are putting yourself out there.
Charles said, ‘Just be yourself. It’s aspirational. You’re showing other women that you can be whoever you want to be at any age.’
“There’s a misconception you have to be young to be a pop star but this will be my first studio solo album at the tender age of 40.
"So I just feel like I’m representing women who feel like they want to do something but they’re too old for it. We’re never too old.
“Life is literally just beginning and we’re a lot older and wiser at 40. You know exactly what you want.”
Natasha, who turned 40 last July, joined Atomic Kitten in 1999. They had three No1 singles, including Whole Again, before their last album in 2003, and have reunited multiple times to tour.
“I feel like I know what I’m doing this time,” she says. “To be able to release an album that goes up the charts would be a massive ‘I did it!’. It would be the icing on the cake for me.
“On the lead-up to 40, I was not enjoying it. I felt off-kilter, like, ‘Who am I? Where am I going in my life?’
But I’ve persevered and things have started to come to fruition and it feels great. Now I’m 40 and fabulous.”
